Alas, poor Blockbuster, I knew it well, and watched its original owner both give us a baseball team and gut it. Nothing good ever came out of that blue and yellow POS. I'll be first in line to dance on its grave.

It's nothing new. Corporations run through systems, and those systems are designed to resist change. That's part of what makes them successful. That's why every time something new comes around, it's demonized until the corporation finds a way to make money off it. Today, file-sharing is seen as the end-all to the RIAA and MPAA. Until they find a way to give the consumer what they want, then the technology will become vital to it’s success and they’ll bitch about how some newer technology is cutting into their profits from the older one they didn’t want to adopt in the first place.

Agreed that while Avatar did bring people out to the theater, it was for entirely different reasons. I don't make it out to the movies anymore, specifically for the reasons you listed. Whenever I DO watch something first-run, it's almost always bootlegged.

I just can't see theaters competing with home-brew stuff anymore unless they start giving audiences incentives to go. Avatar made use of 3D. Other movies are following.

I guess I see a future where everything that ISN'T 3D will be given the option to stream at home, kind of like how widescreen gave people reason to go to the theater when television first came about.

I like to buy CD's because I enjoy the artwork and I like having an original disc. But not for $18.99 (in 2001 dollars, courtesy of Sam Goody's). That's why i wait a few years until they're going for under a buck on Amazon, then swipe them up for about $3.00 with shipping.

Listen, if I want to convince some chick that I secretly helped Paul and Ringo pen the lost Beatles album, who am I to say I'm wrong if it lands her in the sack? Something something suckers and every minute.

I stopped buying albums around the time Nickelback got big because I was convinced the record companies had completely lost their minds. Since then, I've happily downloaded a truckload of albums I normally would have never paid for.